By Dan Ketler, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
After two straight losses after their bye week, the Philadelphia Eagles have been brought back to Earth. Now they stand at 3-2 and will return home to face Sam Bradford’s undefeated Minnesota Vikings.
The Eagles haven’t played at home since they torched the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 3. Since then the Birds offense has been plagued by senseless penalties. The past three games Philadelphia has played, they’ve racked up 37 penalties for 324 yards, which makes them the fourth most penalized team in the NFL.
Although rookie quarterback Carson Wentz continues to play well, some of the better plays he’s making aren’t making any difference because they are called back by penalties.
There’s absolutely no way the Eagles will be able to compete at a high level if they aren’t playing focused and paying attention to the small details of the game. Although they have found talent on both sides of the ball, none of that matter if Philadelphia continues to take irresponsible penalties.
As they head into Week 7, Bradford will make his return to Lincoln Financial Field, but this time he’s bringing an excellent Vikings defense to help aid him.
Minnesota’s defense is ranked second in total yards per game. They are undefeated because their defense is allowing the fewest amount of points per game, 12.6.
All excellence aside, not many gave the Eagles a chance when they were readying to face the Steelers, however the defensive front came out firing on all cylinders and were able to keep Ben Roethlisberger in the pocket while the secondary stuck to his wide receivers for the entirety of the game. While the defense played lights out, Wentz and his offense came into each series fresh and ready to drive down the field and put points up.
That being said, if the defense can get back to playing with a chip on its shoulder and get in Bradford’s face, the more the Vikings defense will be on the field, the better for Wentz.
Wentz has a strong ability to dance around the pocket and avoid taking sacks, and when he does that, he makes plays. If Minnesota’s defense is tired, that will factor into the Eagles ability to put consistent points on the board.
If Philadelphia can limit the amount of penalties they take and get after Sam Bradford early and often, the Eagles are certainly capable of handing Minnesota their first loss of the season.
